Interesting. Either A) Assad pissed off Putin enough that Putin won't fully back him anymore, or B) the EU struck a back-room deal with Putin

...and so if Putin is wrapping up the Syrian campaign, then what's next? With falling oil prices and crumbling Ruble, Putin needs a distraction to keep the Russian people's mind on something else. Back to Ukraine again? Or maybe invade some other weak neighbor that's brimming with "fascists"?

"the EU struck a back-room deal with Putin" Some rumours that the Saudis struck a back door deal with Russia about cutting oil production!!

If we are still around in 60 years then maybe the truth will be released.

Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria are expected to imminently declare a federal system, a move likely to further complicate peace talks in Geneva on ending more than five years of war.

The Kurds appear to be taking matters into their own hands after being excluded from the talks in Geneva, which began on Monday, by drawing up plans to combine three Kurdish-led autonomous areas of northern Syrian into a federal arrangement.

This arrangement, which two senior Kurdish officials said they backed, would be sure to alarm neighboring Turkey, which fears growing Kurdish sway in Syria is fuelling separatism among its own Kurdish minority.

This arrangement, which two senior Kurdish officials said they backed, would be sure to alarm neighboring Turkey, which fears growing Kurdish sway in Syria is fuelling separatism among its own Kurdish minority...

Vladimir Putin has today awarded medals to tank and artillery commanders at a ceremony for soldiers who fought in Syria, apparently contradicting the Kremlin’s previous insistence that only its air force was in combat there.Source.

Spokesman Konashenkov confirmed that five Russian soldiers had died in Syria during the Russian campaign, but declined to comment on Islamic State’s claim that another five Russian soldiers had been killed near Palmyra in recent days.

MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/. Russia’s Aerospace Forces continue delivering airstrikes at terrorist targets in Syria, and Russian jets make 20-25 sorties daily to support the operation to free Palmyra, Lieutenant General Sergey Rudskoy, chief of the main operations department of the Russian General Staff, said on Friday.

"A large-scale operation to free the city of Palmyra has been carried out recently by government forces and patriotic forces with support from Russia’s Aerospace Forces. On average, Russian jets make 20-25 sorties daily," Rudskoy told reporters.

Two days after Russia makes big announcements that they are pulling out of Syria and joining the peace process....they step-up bombing raids and launch a major assault? Looks like Putin is pulling out of Syria the same way he pulled out of Ukraine

Two days after Russia makes big announcements that they are pulling out of Syria and joining the peace process....they step-up bombing raids and launch a major assault? Looks like Putin is pulling out of Syria the same way he pulled out of Ukraine

Nah, it just looks like he'll finally direct some bombs in ISIS's direction. Tips the balance of the civil war in favor of Assad and now hopes to get the credit for pushing ISIS back to Iraq. Additionally, he found a cheaper way of testing out new technology and dumping old munitions in the process. Genius actually.

Two days after Russia makes big announcements that they are pulling out of Syria and joining the peace process....they step-up bombing raids and launch a major assault? Looks like Putin is pulling out of Syria the same way he pulled out of Ukraine

20-25 sorties a day is indeed scaled back quite a bit. RT says 9000 sorties during the last five months, that's about 60 each day.

Perhaps the key to it all lies in a minor side note in the article above:
"The Russian campaign also reduced the threat posed to Russia by Islamic militants, as over 2,000 fighters from Russia have been 'eliminated' in Syria, including 17 field commanders."

Putin probably realized that there is on so much aerial bombardment can do and Russian army would need to send significant numbers of ground troops to win the war for Assad. This would mean Afghanistan-like situation.

Withdrawing now, Assad can negotiate from a better position than last year. A federal Syria (as I suggested before) is more likely: Assad and his tribe gets to stay alive, Russia keeps it's Mediterranean base, the Kurds have practically a state.

The latest batch of released Hillary Clinton emails show Google officials working with the State Department to promote “defections” in Syria at a time when the United States was looking to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Putin probably realized that there is on so much aerial bombardment can do and Russian army would need to send significant numbers of ground troops to win the war for Assad. This would mean Afghanistan-like situation.

Withdrawing now, Assad can negotiate from a better position than last year. A federal Syria (as I suggested before) is more likely: Assad and his tribe gets to stay alive, Russia keeps it's Mediterranean base, the Kurds have practically a state.

To that I would say that the Russians did far better than the others in managing to get their objectives done.

And scant regard for collateral victims; old fashioned bombs are far cheaper than smart bombs which reduce such damage.

That's what's being said. But does it stand even a rough plausibility test?

According to this article in taz.de Russia killed roughly twice as many civilians than the western coalition since September, in both cases 1/4 were children.

Now, a fair comparison includes the number of raids (bombs or amount of explosives dropped would be better but raids will do). 9000 raids for Russia during the last five months, how many by the west? No idea, a quick search didn't yield any useful info.